Aubert de Villaine

Recognized as the leader of terroir concept worldwide, Mr. de Villaine is the Honorary President of the Association des Climats du Vignoble de Bourgogne, co-owner of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, and owner of the Domaine A & P de Villaine in Bouzeron. Under his leadership, in July 2015 Burgundy was recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site after nearly a decade of effort.

He was born in 1939. After the completion of the study in both literature and law he worked in the United States for a period and then became the co-manager of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. Together with the wife, he founded and now runs Domaine A & P de Villaine in Bouzeron, a commune in southern Burgundy which became Aligote AOC in 1998: the Villaines played an important role in the recognition of the appellation.

He was mayor of Bouzeron from 2001 to 2008 and is currently president of Musique et Vin au Clos Vougeot, president of the Association pour la Sauvegarde du Monastère de St Vivant, vice-president of Association pour la Sauvegarde de la Diversité des Cépages de Bourgogne.